Taking A Breather

Home depot rents trucks for $19.95

vanner68 wrote:Home depot rents trucks for $19.95

Yep. I've been using my neighbors Tacoma for years for bigger Home Depot runs but a dirty old greasy engine is probably not cool! lol

Tarp.


c'mon, ya gotta do better than that, I raised 3 boys!

Oh, btw- motors always 'ran when parked'.....so at the very least take a breaker bar and see if it is froze up.

donivan65 wrote:Your best chance of NOT getting stuck with a piece of junk would be to take your starter, bolts, jumper cables and a battery and a compression tester, to see if that engine still turns over and has compression,,,,,

Normally, I would agree, but for $50 if the only thing he uses is the crank he's still ahead....

If it were me, I would just pull the pan and make sure that none of the rod bearings have spun, and pop the crank in his existing engine with new bearings and rings.

Or, if the bottom end is clean, use the shortblock.

Either way, I would scrap the integral head, those are junk.

True.

But 250's aren't growing on trees, and the longer the van sits, the longer it sits.

Mine sat for 13 years last time I parked it. Life tends to get in the way of projects.

Interesting, I was thinking the other day that it would be much easier to pound on the good balancer if the keyway was open out to the end of the crankshaft - what the heck would I use to open it up with the motor still in the van like that? But still, like you said, the key would still be sitting in a worn out slot, not good...

The bad balancer stays in place - at least when I look at it when the engine is idling and when I rev it a bit, it only goes out about a 1/8" before the belt keeps it in check. Now what it is doing driving down the road I don't know and I have only made a couple of short trips since determining that's what was causing my engine noise. The more I've talked to you and learned about this, I just quit driving it at all, except to pull it into the garage this weekend.

I've been looking on CL and haven't found anything like what Scotty did, I need to start contacting the rod shops like someone suggested, see if I can get something to shake out of the rafters.

Just remember, the bottom ends stayed the same to the end, but the integral heads from the 70's are junk. You can bolt your early head to a late 250.

Ideally, find a running junker that you can pull the motor out yourself. At least then you can hear and see it run.


Good luck!

V8 conversion's starting to sound logical.

This would be a Hail Mary, but what about slippin ina new key and a good balancer and Lock-Titing the dog snot out of it?

Yeah, the 'get another couple miles' fix has been done and lasted those couple miles. Now it's time to properly repair or replace. Any further 'fixes' won't last as long as the first, and will probably cause more damages. Just the way those things work.
Repair = remove crankshaft, weld, grind, cut slot, replace balancer and any other worn components. Trans will have to be slid back to get crank out. or engine removed.
Replace = crank and worn components or entire engine.
The next thing to go will be thrust bearings and/or bearings or rotating assembly (crank, rods, pistons) due to lack of firmly attached harmonic balancer.
Due to the very real threat of "mission creep" when digging into an old engine, I'd tend toward hunting down a good replacement.
These guys have a long block for 895 plus 250 core charge
http://www.precisionengine.com/rebuilt-engines/chevy-gmc/index.html

I can tell you that rebuilding yours at a machine shop with a full valve job, new bearings, rings, oil pump, and repairing your crank is going to exceed that. Add a bore and pistons, cam and lifters, and it will look cheap.
BTW, that core charge is going to get eaten (or most of it) due to the crank condition.

Unless this is a daily driver that NEEDs to be on the road this week, just be patient and keep looking for that good used engine. There isn't much in San Diego right now, but LA has these...

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/pts/3152299763.html

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lgb/pts/3158589413.html

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/pts/3194380214.html

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lgb/pts/3193198360.html

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/pts/3187330405.html

So here are pics of how bad the keyway is. Don gave me a good balancer that goes on about 1/4" then gets very tight, so it will probably work. And he gave me a good unworn key. The problem is it would just keep slopping around in that bad keyway.

Stupid Question time... Instead of gouging out the end of the crank so I could put the key in the pulley, then pound it on, why not mark the crank on the opposite side, 180 degrees from original slot, and bore a new one? Put a new timing mark on the pulley to match up with where the keyway is supposed to be. I am guessing the answer is the crank is some pretty hard steel and would need to be on a machine to cut the keyway... Dremel and stone wheel??

Scotty's motor sounds like a great option! So many options, my head is spinning!!

And don't worry, the fun meter is not too low, I still get to poke my head in the garage and say "man, how cool is that van??"

Don, you beat me to it - I was out playing with the kid in the middle of writing my post.

I know the motor is shot, just grasping at straws for some cheap fix to keep it running while I re-do brakes, clutch, etc. etc. Time to bite the bullet when I find one. Rod, thanks for the links. That Texas shop has much better prices than the place close to me in Escondido.

Here's is what we did to a buick engine that had same problem. Get your self some shim stock. get several different thicknesses. start with .002 and rap it like a toilet paper roll and put it inside the shot balancer. Do not overlap it and cut it so the key will fit through the slit when inside the balancer. put key in and push on balancer. if it slides on, remove it as well as the shim stock you used and replace it with a couple thousands thicker. keep trying different thickness untill you find the right thickness so you have to pound that balancer on. this worked for 4 1/2 years untill the lady fianally sold it. She informed the new owner as to what we had done and he drove the car for another 2 years, untill he totaled it. The key way was bad also and this seamed to work great. No vibration at all and it saved her 3500.00 for a new motor. It would be a cheap fix and a couple hours maybe less of your time. Again this is temporary but it just might work.

...I'm sorry did I miss something here Donavan??? Temporary meens just that. I would'nt drive anywhere with it for a long period of time...And yes if it's bad enough he should replace that crank. But if he needs to just drive it from home to work and back untill he finds another engine this will work. I have seen it used on many shafts that spin at a lot higher RPM. Just suggesting it untill he finds another in better shape.

Don, I am happy to entertain!!

Big W wrote:Here's is what we did to a buick engine that had same problem. Get your self some shim stock. get several different thicknesses. start with .002 and rap it like a toilet paper roll and put it inside the shot balancer. Do not overlap it and cut it so the key will fit through the slit when inside the balancer. put key in and push on balancer. if it slides on, remove it as well as the shim stock you used and replace it with a couple thousands thicker. keep trying different thickness untill you find the right thickness so you have to pound that balancer on. this worked for 4 1/2 years untill the lady fianally sold it. She informed the new owner as to what we had done and he drove the car for another 2 years, untill he totaled it. The key way was bad also and this seamed to work great. No vibration at all and it saved her 3500.00 for a new motor. It would be a cheap fix and a couple hours maybe less of your time. Again this is temporary but it just might work.

The other nifty thing about my balancer is that the rubber is COMPLETELY GONE!! So that part is toast, no need to buy shims. But what you are describing seems the same as getting a key to stay in place while a tight fitting good balancer is pounded on - interesting that your fix lasted so long. Since my van won't be a daily driver or distance traveler (at least not without a solid motor and other upgrades) maybe it would last me a fair bit.

The lady that owned the Buick is a great friend of our family, and I wouldn't have suggested it if you were planning on going cross country. But if all you need to do was get to work and back, which is how she drove her buick, it should work. Now I have not seen up close how bad yours is in. and the Buick was caught early enough to save it. The key way on hers might not have been as bad as yours, and we told her the same thing. YOU NEED A NEW CRANK..lol. But she just kept on driving it untill she sold it. So...in saying this you no what you really need, but it's worth a shot if it's not to badly damaged and you don't over rev the hell out of it and stay in town. But don't stop looking for that other engine, you still need that crankshaft.